Facades Change People
by nana chan the weird
Summary: Claire and Zach's perspective on what has happened to Claire. Only up to Fallout. Oneshot. ClaireZach friendship maybe a bit more.


Title: Facades change people

Author: Nana-chan the weird

Summary: Claire and Zach's perspective on what has happened to Claire. Only up to Fallout. Oneshot. Claire/Zach friendship maybe a bit more.

Zach's POV

I really felt useless. There was my ex-best friend throwing herself off of a building and all I could do to help her deal with the pain was tape her doing it. How had things gotten this bad that she tried to hurt herself but realized that she couldn't? What could have sparked such a change in the strong willed, fun-loving person I used to know? Sure I haven't talked to her since sixth grade but three years doesn't change someone that much, does it? I used to watch her just to make sure that she didn't need a friend to go to anymore, yet I must have missed something for things to have gone this awry.

Then she helped that man in the fire. She saved a life not caring that she might die. She was determined that she could no longer be harmed. I looked at her and realized that she hadn't changed as much as I thought she had. She had this mask set up in front of her, one that no one could understand. She needed it to be able to pretend to be the perky, preppy cheerleader that all the popular kids loved. I missed the way that she used to be. The time long ago, when she didn't care about her image or her reputation. Back then, she was nice to everyone and was loved by all, but society changes people. It molds them, forms into something that they normally would not become on their own.

She made me promise to never show those tapes to anyone, but I lost them and broken her trust. She went frantic. Those tapes could destroy her, yet she had trusted me to be able to keep charge of that, and I had failed. I remembered a time when I knew everything that there was to know about Claire Bennet. That time was no more. I am now the geeky boy and she is the co-captain of the cheerleading squad. We lived in different worlds. Yet she didn't call her new supposed best friend, Jacqueline, when she needed help. She called me. People are creatures of habit and we had been best friends for over six years. She still slept with the teddy bear that I got her on her eighth birthday. Remembrance was one thing, attachment was another.

Then she called me one night in tears. She had died. She'd had a stick impaled into her neck and had woken up cut up on the autopsy table. She didn't have a scar on her. Her pseudo-boyfriend had tried the unspeakable, he tried to rape her. I felt rage swelling up inside of me. "Well, what are you going to about it?" I asked. "Nothing", she had replied, but then she went and did something stupid. She crashed his, the boyfriend's, car into a wall with both of them in it. Yet again she walked away without a scratch on her. He was hospitalized. He deserved worse, but as it seems to be a reoccurring trend in this saga I was useless. Claire was hurt beyond what anyone knew and all I could do was try and make her laugh. Her laugh used to come easily but it no longer did. She had a slight smile to her mouth, but nothing more then a little curve. She is broken, and I don't know how to fix her.

Then her real parents were found. She had hoped that they would end up answering some of her questions about her ability, but they really only left her with more questions to be asked. Something was lying beneath the surface of it all, but I can't tell what exactly it could be. It wasn't right. When I saw her parents they looked as if they knew everything about her, but according to her, they really knew next to nothing. Then she found out about this whole disease thing and semi-freaked. What was wrong with her that had made her parents suspicious? Then she felt like she actually learned nothing about who they were, they only stayed a few minutes. No one would only stay a few moments if they actually knew who she was. Something is wrong in the Bennet household, and I will figure out what it is if it is the last thing I do. But she seemed fine for now. At least as fine as one who just meet her parents for the first time could feel.

I found the tape and felt as if I had finally done something right. It was under my bed right next to my PSP. The same PSP I had used just the day before. It wasn't there then. Fear filled me. Someone else knew, she would blame me after all I had lost them. So I told her. I have never seen her look so relieved. No more worries is what some would say, but Claire never did get a break at anything. Her brother found them. He started calling her freak and alien and hurt her more then he would ever realize. Finally, she managed to convince him not to tell anyone about her abilities. They shared what some would call a cute brother sister moment, but it wasn't. Claire hadn't told her brother everything about her she never would either. He couldn't be trusted he was way too much of a blabbermouth to ever be trustworthy for her secrets. The only one trustworthy enough was, well, me I suppose. I tried yet again to just make light of the situation, but Claire thought I was taunting him, which I was. She made me stop. Sometimes I think I would do anything for her. If she asked I would even try to make her popular again. Just so she would be able to feel some normality in crazy messed up life.

Claire became homecoming queen. The look on her face was worth all the hard work I had trying to convince everyone that Claire should be the one that they voted for, since she was so unlike the rest. Then her dad grounded her because she punched Jackie. She wouldn't be able to go to the dance. I helped her escape without her dads notice. Then she did something that had only happened in my dreams. She asked me to be her date to the Homecoming dance. I told her no, it was suppose to be a night where she could have some of her old life back. However, someone tried to kill her. I don't know what would have happened if that had happened. I probably would have gone insane. You see, I am in love with Claire; I have been since fifth grade. There was absolutely no way I could ever give her up. She told me about this Peter Petrelli guy who saved her life. He was like her, she said. He could heal. She wasn't alone and that thought, more than any of the stupid jokes I tried to use to help her, made her happy. She couldn't be happy with another guy. Not ever. He's her hero though. I just don't know what to do. But then her dad comes to me with a haitian. He says that he wants to tell me something very important about Claire outside, he's waiting right now. I had better get going, it sounded serious.

Claire called me she said she wanted to talk. I hadn't talked to her since sixth grade. What would make her think that anything has changed? I went. She starts asking me stuff about if I remember. She looks devastated. I ask her if this is another one of her cheerleader initiation pranks. She just looks at me sadly and runs away. Then I go to school the next day and everything has changed. Jackie's dead, Claire's not popular, and apparently I was supposed to be hanging out with Claire again. Something's wrong. I need to find out why.

Claire's POV

I was different. No, I am not one of those my-mommy-told-me-I-am-special-so-I-must-be types of kids. I realized that there was something about me when suddenly all of my wounds healed and they left no scars. I was freaked. The cheerleaders, if they ever found out, would think I was freak. So I called Zach. He was my best friend until sixth grade and was the only person I could trust with something of this magnitude. Zach used to be my best friend, but then Jackie said something to me that made me think. "Your reputation is everything. It follows you where ever you go. Therefore you should choose your friends very wisely. Zach is not someone who will help you be who you WANT to be." But now, I didn't know who I want to be. I want to be normal, whatever normal really is. So I called him, all I wanted was some proof that I was not imagining things. I got it all right. I jumped off of a bridge, and he freaked out.

We walked upon a train wreck. There was fire everywhere. It was engulfing everything. It was then that I decided that I should try and help people. After all, if I can't get burned than I should make sure that no one is in there dying. I told Zach to run the tape. He did so. It was an experience, I'll tell you that much. How can I explain the feeling of flames caressing you without it hurting? It feels like warmth, it's a feeling I've had once before in Zach's arms, that last day in sixth grade the day before we stopped being friends. No matter how much I want to stay in the fire, I grab the guy and get out. I notice Zach. He's worried again, I have a feeling he'll be worried for a while to come now.

He lost the tapes. Seriously, I ask one thing of him, to keep the secret and with it the tapes safe. What does he do? He loses them. I see the look on his face. He is mortified that he has done something so wrong. He eyes plead for forgiveness while his voice tells me he'll find them. He means it too. I feel bad for him. I know that I'm being a bitch but what can one do? I am not in a good mood. But he doesn't deserve this. He's a good person, and he deserves to have someone better then me as a friend. I dropped him for popularity. I made fun of him because it was a cool thing to do, even when I saw the hurt in his eyes. One thing that I never did was betray any of his secrets though. And he knows that. That's the only reason why he's still here.

I told Zach about Brody. I told him I wasn't going to do anything about it, but when I heard that he had done it to other girls, other cheerleaders, harmed them so much that they were never the same, I flipped out. I crashed his car. I didn't expect him to still be alive. He knows, now he's the only one besides Zach to know. Zach I can trust, he's always been there for me for my every trouble and hardship. But Brody is a mean football player, who rapes girls. What am I going to do? It'll be all throughout the entire popular crowd in an hour. This does not bode well.

He didn't say anything about it. I was certain that he would but he didn't. My parents told me that they had been trying to find my adopted parents and they did. I wanted Zach to be there, but he said that it was something better done alone. They'll want to know you not your friend thingy. He had told me when I asked him to come. They only stayed a few minutes. I wish Zach had stayed, he always seems to know what to do to make people open up and tell their story. They didn't want to know anything about me and didn't seem to care if they ever saw me again. Fine then. Good riddance. Looks like it's just you and me, Zach, just you and me. All alone to deal with this phenomenon.

He found the tapes and bought me a book. He was so sweet about both. But Lyle found the tape. Stupid kid. He threatened to tell mom and dad. I had to break down in order to get them back. He finally gave them to me and Zach made a wise crack about Lyle, something to do with aliens. I knew he was trying to make me laugh. He was always trying to make me laugh. I told him to shut up. And then later when he gave me the book I was so happy with him, showing that he cared even though everyone knew he did. Then Jackie came up and started taunting him about things she doesn't even understand. So I punch her. It's all over the school by lunch and I have people coming up and congratulating me. It's weird how I've changed since I let Zach back in my life. My mask has steadily been slipping and I don't remember how to pull it back up.

He got me some normality. I don't know how he found the time between all the crap I have him worrying about plus school plus videos plus everything else. When did he have the time to campaign my being homecoming queen? It was a sight to see, all those people staring at me and cheering for me. Jackie stomped off in a fit of rage. But then my dad grounded me, but Zach helped me sneak out. I wanted him to come with me, as my date but he said no. I was hurt but he told me it was only because he wanted me to feel normal. So I went, dateless and a bit depressed. I had the fake smile painted on my face again, but it dropped when Jackie walked in the room too. We were arguing and then the lights turn off and I hear footsteps and a man attacks us. He slams me into a row of lockers while he cuts Jackie's head open. Her last words to me are to run, so I do. I get away safely enough and I meet Peter Petrelli on the way. When I finally get home my dad fusses and worries. He's known the entire time.

The next day I go to see Zach. Lyle doesn't remember and I pray to God that Zach does. But he doesn't. "Is this some kind of cheerleader initiation prank?" he asked. I don't know what to say. Tears fill my eyes. I look at him sadly and run away. When I get home the man who has taken away his memories is waiting for me. All I can think is why? Did I deserve this for all the times I was a bitch just to be popular? All I wanted was to be normal, and now all I want is to have Zach back.

End of Facades Change People


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